Material treating apparatus



Aug. 29, 193%. A. J. N. DUCLOS MATERIAL TREATING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 8, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 FIG. I.

INVENTOR A. J. N. DUCLOS A TTOR/VEY Aug? 1939- A. J. N. DUCLOS 2,171,232

MATERIAL TREAT ING APPARATUS Filed Dec. 8, 1937 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR FIG. 3.

A. J. N. DUCLOS ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 29, 1939 UNHTED STATES PATENT OFFIQE,

signor to Western El rated, New York, N. York ectric Company, Incorpo- Y., a corporation of New Application December 8, 1937, Serial No. 178,678

3 Claims.

This invention relates to material treating apparatus and more particularly to material melting apparatus in which charges of molten material are periodically allowed to solidify and are subsequently remelted.

In the manufacture of electric conductor cables, frequently such cables are provided with external sheathings of lead or lead alloys or the like by the use of an extrusion press which is periodically charged with molten sheath material. To supply the molten material in batches as required for the press, it in many cases customary to provide a lead melting furnace or kettle with a capacity for molten material equal to several press charges. Such a furnace or kettle may be run, in ordinary practice, continuously for several days, 6. g. Monday to Friday inclusively, and then allowed to cool for a stated period, e. g. Saturday and Sunday, in cyclic recurrence. During each inactive period, whatever charge may be in the furnace when the active period closes, cools and solidifies. Such kettles ordinarily are provided with various instrumentalities or elements which extend into or through the charge in the kettle, for example, charge stirring means, temperature indicating devices, valve control rods, and the like, which are ordinarily of iron or steel, Because of the differences of temperature to which these are subjected, which are of the order of 650 F. and upward, such elements will change their dimensions and particularly their lengths, to an extent which may prove detrimental and even destructive.

An object of the present invention is to provide a melting furnace or kettle having instrumentalities or elements extending into or through the charge of material in the furnace, which shall include means to mount such instrumentalities or elements in such fashion as to compensate for dimensional changes therein under variations in temperature.

With the above and other objects in View, one embodiment of the invention contemplates a lead melting kettle comprising a heating furnace and a kettle to be heated thereby in combination with a kettle top enclosing housing yieldingly mounted on the kettle to be capable of being separated therefrom against resilient restoring means, and instrumentalities normally extending into the interior of the kettle and mounted in the housing so as to be capable of motion in. the housing and away from the kettle against resilient restoring means.

Other objects and characteristics of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which the same reference numerals are applied to identical parts in the several figures and in which Fig. 1 is a broken view in front elevation and partly in vertical transverse central section of a lead melting and mixing kettle constructed in accordance with the invention;

Fig. 2 is a broken plan view thereof, and

Fig. 3 is a detail on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2.

The embodiment of the invention herein disclosed presents an apparatus for melting, holding melted and delivering as desired lead, lead alloy or the like material to either of two cable sheath extrusion presses, not shown, located one on either side of the apparatus disclosed.

There is presented a kettle 2i? of iron, steel or 7 other appropriate material supported by its everted integral rim 2| upon the inner top surface or a channel shaped annulus 22 which rests upon the wall 23 of a furnace whose other parts and construction are largely not shown and are not relevant to the invention and which serves to heat the kettle 2i? to melt and maintain molten lead placed in the kettle.

A kettle top, cover or housing generally indicated at 2 1 and having a main body of cylindrical form, with double concentric side walls 25 and a triple top wall 26, rests with its bottom edge on the annulus 22 concentrically around the kettle rim 25. A transverse girder support 2'! having its ends secured to the innermost face of the side walls 25 runs across the top 24, a little offset rearwardly from but parallel to the diameter of the top lying in the section plane of the drawings. A stirrer housing tube 28 is positioned vertically c oaxially in the kettle resting loosely at its lower end in a suitable step support on the bottom of the kettle as shown at 29. The upper end of this tube 28 is supported against toppling over by a stirrup 30 around it and secured to the girder 2?. The tube 28 is provided with one or more inlet apertures 3| in its walls near its lower end, one or more outlet apertures 32 near its upper end, and one or more dross removal openings 33 above the apertures 32,

The shaft of a stirrer 34 extends coaxially down through the tube 28 and is appropriately journalled in an end bearing at 29 as shown and pass- A ing through the top walls 2% of the kettle has its upper end steadied in a bearing or journal in a transverse bar 35 whose ends are vertically slidable on vertical rods or pillars it supported on the top walls 26. A housing 31 mounted on the Cir top surface of the walls 26 encloses a bevel gear 38 keyed On the shaft of the stirrer 34 and driven by suitable gearing from a motor 39 to drive the stirrer.

The tube 28 and stirrer 34 tend to float up in the denser, heavier molten lead in the kettle. The tube 28 is held down in position by a transverse yoke 40 abutting the upper end of the tube and held down by being mounted and supported on vertical rods 4| extending upwardly through the top 26 and slidably steadied in transverse bars 42 whose ends are rigidly supported on rods 43 mounted vertically on the wall 26. The stirrer 34 is held down by the collar 44 on its shaft abutting against the under side of the bar 35.

Outlet pipes 45 extend through the kettle and furnace walls on each side toward the two presses (not shown) to be served by the apparatus. At its inner end, each of these tubes or pipes 45 is provided with a tapered inlet opening in an otherwise imperforate head 46, these inlet openings being sealed by complementary tapered valve members 41 carried on vertically disposed rods 48 extending up through the walls 26 and through threaded apertures in supports 49, the rods 48 being correspondingly threaded. Pulleys 50 keyed on the rods or shafts 48 and driven by belts from pulleys 5| and shafts 52 having hand wheels 53 enable opening or closing of valves 41 at will to allow molten lead to flow out of the kettle through the outlets 45.

A kettle draining aperture in the bottom of the kettle is normally closed by the correspondingly formed lower end of a rod 54, threadedly carried in a fixed nut 55 secured to the yoke 40, and the rod extending up through wall 26 and formed with a squared head for manipulation with a wrench.

There may also be a pipe 56 adapted to house a thermoelectric temperature indicating device, not shown, if desired. Also the top 24 will be provided with a hinged door 51 to give access to the interior.

The furnace is kept continuously hot, and the periodically renewed charge in the kettle is kept molten while the apparatus is in operation, e. g. in normal operation from Monday morning until Friday night; but during recurrent intervals, e. g. from Friday night until Monday morning, the furnace is allowed to cool and the kettle charge to freeze. In the case of a lead kettle, this means that parts within the kettle and its top will be subject to cyclically recurrent temperature changes of the order of 650 F. and more, e. g. from 50 F. when cold to TOW-750 F. when hot. Elements such as the tube 28, the stirrer 34, the rods 4| and 48 and 54 and the like will alter materially in length in consequence, and such changes in length might well damage the apparatus seriously if not compensated for.

Hence the bar 35 which holds the stirrer 34 down is not secured to the rods 36 but is slidable thereon and is yieldingly held down by helical compression springs 6|]; the rods 4|, which hold down the yoke 40 and thereby both the tube 28 and the drain valve rod 54, are arranged to slide in the fixed crossbars 42 and are yieldingly held down by helical compression springs 6|. And

the drain valve rod 54 is further yieldingly held down by the compression spring 62.

It is not conveniently practicable to make the outlet valve control rods 48 reciprocable in and with respect to the wall 26. Hence the entire top 24 is held down on the annulus 22 yieldingly, by means of long bolts 58 and compression springs 63. This arrangement provides an additional safety feature with respect to the other elements: in case any of them should become jammed the springs 53 will allow the entire top to yield bodily.

The invention has been described above as embodied in a particular type of lead melting furnace but obviously is not so limited and the embodiment described may be departed from variously without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as pointed out in and limited solely by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A material heating apparatus comprising a kettle, means to heat the kettle, a top cover mounted on the kettle, a stirrer mounted on the top cover to extend into the kettle and resilient means in the mounting of the stirrer to permit the stirrer to be yieldingly displaced relatively to the kettle.

2. A material heating apparatus comprising a kettle, means to heat the kettle, a top cover mounted on the kettle, a stirrer mounted by resilient means on the top cover to extend into the kettle and to be resiliently displaceable relatively to the kettle, a stirrer guard tube mounted in the kettle and surrounding the stirrer, and resiliently yieldable means to maintain the tube in place in the kettle.

3. A material heating apparatus comprising a kettle, means to heat the kettle, a top cover mounted on the kettle, a stirrer mounted by resilient means on the top cover to extend into the kettle and to be resiliently displaceable relatively to the kettle, a stirrer guard tube mounted in the kettle and surrounding the stirrer, .and resiliently yieldable means mounted on the top cover to maintain the tube in place in the kettle.

AENEAS J. N. DUCLOS. 

